Liberal economics lobby organisation the Free Market Foundation (FMF) has called for the size of the national Cabinet to be reduced to create a lean but efficient Cabinet.

The organisation made this call ahead of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, which is due to be delivered by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on November 12.

The FMF estimates that reducing the Cabinet to ten portfolios could save between R5-billion and R10-billion a year, with potential total savings of up to 1% of yearly GDP, if indirect costs and regulatory requirements are factored in.

Government spending consumes one-third of GDP, debt is increasing to unsustainable levels and unemployment remains higher than 33% of the adult population.

“South Africa’s Cabinet is one of the largest in the world relative to its population and GDP. Reforms can no longer be deferred. A smaller Cabinet will not weaken governance but restore it,” FMF senior associate Dr Morné Malan says in the 'Lean But Efficient: The Fiscal and Moral Imperative of Cutting South Africa’s Cabinet' paper.

South Africa's Cabinet has 32 Ministers, who oversee national departments, including some Ministers who serve under the Presidency, and 37 Deputy Ministers.

This can be compared with developed countries like Germany, which has 17 ministries; Japan, which has 20 ministries; and the UK, which has 22 ministerial departments, all of which serve larger and more complex economies, the FMF points out in its paper.

The FMF calls for reducing South Africa’s Cabinet to ten essential portfolios by merging overlapping functions and abolishing redundant national departments, such as the Small Business Development; Sports, Arts and Culture; and Tourism departments.

The organisation also urges government to privatise State-owned enterprises, cap expenditure at 25% of GDP and abolish two regulations for each new regulation introduced to stem bureaucratic creep.

The FMF says that large Cabinets arise not from genuine governance needs but from coalition politics and patronage networks. Reducing the size of the executive would streamline decision-making, curb waste and help reallocate resources to debt reduction and tax relief.

Countries such as New Zealand, Singapore and post-war Germany achieved rapid growth and fiscal recovery through administrative downsizing, and South Africa risks continued stagnation unless it follows suit, the FMF warns.

“Every unnecessary department means more bureaucrats, more red tape and more waste. Cutting the Cabinet is a moral imperative, because a smaller State is a freer, fairer and more accountable State,” says FMF head of policy Martin van Staden.